The case came after a freezer malfunction caused the loss of over 4,000 eggs and embryos in March 2018. UH has stated that the malfunction was not due to a “lack of care, negligence, or breach of duty by Defendants.”
Rick and Wendy Penniman of Broadview Heights brought the case to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. According to Judge Larry Jones, they argued “the life of a person begins at the moment of conception, declaring that the legal status of an embryo is that of a person” and requested “costs incurred herein.” Judge Stuart Friedman ruled in favor of UH, and the couple appealed.
On Thursday, the appellate courted ruled 2-1 with Friedman (since retired). Jones wrote the affirming opinion, and Judge Eileen Gallagher concurred.
Judge Jones wrote that, while the term embryo is “not well-defined” under Ohio law, it was not capable of “independent survival” and therefore “does not constitute ‘a distinct human entity.'”
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Sean Gallagher refuted Jones’s citation of criminal statutes, saying the case should be grounded in civil law.
Bruce Taubman, the Pennimans’ attorney, has promised to appeal the decision. Taubman said that life starts at conception. Jones, however, ruled that an embryo prior to implantation is not entitled to the rights of a person.
“The law is clear: An embryo is not a person,” stated UH’s lawyer Benjamin Sasse, during arguments in March.
The ruling comes less than a month after Ohio passed the (unconstitutional) Heartbeat Bill, banning abortions as early as six weeks. The earliest fetal viability has been tentatively placed at 24 weeks, meaning that, while the appellate court has ruled that an embryo incapable of survival does not have the rights of a person, abortions are banned around 20 weeks before a fetus could (potentially) survive independently.
The U.S. Supreme Court previously ruled that the right to an abortion is covered in the 14th Amendment.
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This article appears in May 1-7, 2019.
Life begins at the point of conception. No one can deny that after a human being is conceived it will develop into the very same being as those debating this issue. What astounds me is that those who favor abortion went through an identical development stage as the being they are condemning to death. Would these very same people agree that a similar choice should have been made about their own existence?
Abortion today is used primarily as a birth control of convenience because people are too self-centered to take precautions. They prefer their own pleasurable self-indulgence over the care and sanctity of the life they created. What ever happened to taking responsibility for one’s actions in this country? Is it too much to ask a woman who has conceived to place the child into adoption? Nine months of
discomfort is nothing compared to life in prison for voluntary manslaughter!
Does the father of the child have a say in this? And what about the
constitution of the United States? Are not all people conceived in this
country deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? I believe
abortion is a crime against humanity and should be outlawed. We need to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision and get back to cherishing life in this country. For a country that murders it’s children cannot be far from self destruction.
Oh, just so we are clear. if we’re going to say the embryo is “alive”… then that means were cool (pun) just freezing them indefinitely in a freezer?!? If i were to agree they were “alive” i think personally being aborted would be better then frozen. But ill hold my actually beliefs on the subject for myself instead of posting it to the internet.
If men are so worried about abortion perhaps they should stop ejaculating in women.